2 Comments

Your main digital information page about digital switchover for Southend-on-sea is incorrect.

Only part of Southend can receive satisfactory UHF services from the Crystal Palace/Croydon transmitters. Over two thirds of the population of Southend and district will be better served by receiving their TV signals from the brand new relay station at Rouncefall, in Ashingdon together with Sudbury in Suffolk. These two transmitters work together on their public service and HD channels in an S.F.N.(single frequency network) to give a very robust signal accross most of this area, exect for low lying areas along the seafront and areas such as York Road, near the High Street end in Southend. This is due to local terrain and local screening by tall buildings. These areas also get a very weak London service signal they also struggle with Bluebell Hill reception and can just about receive Dover signals on a good stable weather day. The best option in those areas is a free-to-air satellite receiver or a Sky receiver package.

Despite popular belief – Southend is in the East of England so why does such a great and otherwise splendid website dedicated to Southend-on-sea propagate this myth that somehow Southend is in the South-East and even worse – part of London?

There are TV and radio reception blackspots in Southend and other local areas in this area, they have to receive their TV from wherever they can, i.e: Dover, Bluebell Hill, or Crystal Palace/Croydon; or use the Astra/Eutelsat sattelite sevices at 28.2 and 28.5 degrees east. But if you can receive the new relay station from Rouncefall, Ashingdon, just north of Rochford as well as Sudbury’s main station – then why struggle with a varible below line-of-sight signal from a more distant transmitter from a region such as London that gives absolutley no local news for Southend or most of Essex whatsoever!

If you feel as strongly as I do then please voice your opinions, after all if we all were meant to watch London or Kent TV services, why have Arqiva (the transmission provider for the BBC and commercial channels) built a nice new high powered 4 kiloWatt relay station for the Southend and district area that relays the BBC 1 East and Anglia ITV1 services??

By the way, if you want a good laugh, just look at the way in which the Digital UK postcode checker has been worked out – it’s very misleading with it’s advice indeed. Giving some areas the wrong information, based on spurious readings that have not taken into account the local terrain.

The thing is Southend and most of south west Essex do get London itv ,you can even see the crystal palace transmitter from Basildon you cant see Roundfall which is only a low power relay station with limited coverage /channels, it was only put their as a fudge option but is flawed ,look at this way, even some London boroughs/areas like Havering, Barking or the whole of Middlesex and the end of the Met line in Buckinghamshire, ie Amersham Chesham and where there are relays for London itv at Reigate ,Hemel Hemstead ,Gravesend opposite Tilbury can get ignored ,but that’s like that with all regions and south Essex and Southend do get mention than most on London itv . also do you really want to know whats going down in Nowich which is more than 120 miles away to London which is only 39. Also Anglia /look east area are mentioning to an empty audience ,especially when its bad news as well and nobody in south Essex can pick the signal up

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